Next up in the Engagement Party!  …..this couple were so much fun!  I think we laughed or made jokes right through the whole session and nearly every second image has them laughing with each other, which makes for a great marriage I think!   Whenever I’m upset or mad, Erick always makes me laugh, which is REALLY annoying when you want to be mad, but then I always realise later on that it was a good thing! 

Curtis has that same quirky sense of humour……and although he appears quiet, he is actually quite the Joker.  I think their wedding day will be amazing, especially if their friends and family are half as much fun as these two are!

On another note, I’ve been tagged!  I need to post SIX quirky things about myself…….so I’ll do it tomorrow, cos one thing I do know about myself, I”m absolutely hopeless at posting on Blog Tag Challenges, so I figure if I think of them today and post them tomorrow, then I can cross it off my List….which is the FIRST quirky thing you need to know about me…….I can’t function without a List…..seriously!  I run around like a headless chicken!  So if your talking to me, be sure to say “have you put it on your List?”   LOL!!!!  

We started out this Session where Curtis made the big proposal……and thought it would be fun to capture that and the resulting “prize” …….isn’t that ring just beautiful???

They are just such a beautiful couple, the connection between them and those moments of pure bliss at having found “the One”.

Then we went over to Lyttelton, I confess I haven’t been there in years! …..but I loved the old buildings and working with a couple who were up for anything!  Enjoy!

The last two weeks have been so busy!  Engagement session previews are being worked on this week; three in the last week, and two weddings coming up in the next month, so  a really exciting time for Erick and I.   My Grandmother passed away, and I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who emailed and wrote me to send special hugs!  I really appreciate your thoughts, but honestly I’m not down or sad, she was 95 and I guess having lost my mother and my best friend to cancer when they were only in their 30’s, for me, I think 95 is a pretty good innings!!!

School hols are over, business hours are back to normal…….so first up is such an amazing couple!  They met on a Blind Date!  can you believe it???  I can, because this is the third couple we have met in the last month that has said "blind date"  when we asked how they met.  Erick and I are blown away by that and secretly love it!….maybe because our own engagement was off a virtual blind date; also arranged by friends!  In fact, we didn’t even have a date before we got engaged!   14 years later, we still know that we are the "right" one for each other,  and we know this couple feel like that too.

Not only is Renee stunning!!!!! but Mark is just a great down-to-earth guy, who loves his cars, but loves Renee more! He confessed that he didnt’ really want his photos taken, but was doing it for Renee, and I have to tell you Mark was the most amazing trooper!  He helped carry gear, he put up with all my crazy ideas, and several different locations (yes even the public one’s that he absolutely said he didn’t want to do)……for me it showed how much he adores his wife to be, how amazing their relationship is, and how bright the future will be for them both.

How sexy does she look in this outfit???!!!  Told you Mark was one lucky guy!

We of course had to include the car!  Sure to be a star on the wedding day.

The Day was an absolute stunner!

I loved this series of Images; the Romantic Gesture, the Sassy Reply………..

…..and lastly the absolutely obvious Love that exists between these Two; one touch from Renee and …..well you can see the results!

Thanks for a super fun Day guys!  Your wedding will be amazing!  Gallery due up early next week!

So really this is a test….a boring old test!  but since a blog would be EXTREMELY boring if that is all I posted!  or anyone else for that matter, I found some other interesting stuff to put in this XP test post too!  LOL…genius!     Yes, we finally got rid of Vista off all our systems, and now hours have been spent reloading all our software, programmes (which are software!) and Mailboxes, Documents and other files…..for those of you who blog and want to do it quicker, I love Windows Live Writer…just google and you’ll find it, but I HIGHLY recommend it!  It is so easy, so  convenient and makes blogging a breeze, which is great when life is so busy here!

This weekend I did two E sessions, and sneak peeks will be coming later in the week (sooner rather than later really!)……and in the coming weeks we have two fantastic fun weddings …..one local, one in Waimate of all places!  Long drive both ways, but the location is stunning!  Then the wedding and baby seasons hit, two of my favourite things; new life and new love ; both of which are caught in the new-ness of couples beginning their lives TOGETHER, and babies beginning their new Lives, period.

So this could be a new way to announce it to your spouse?

….and I promise not to do this if you ask me to "adjust" a few things in your pics!…..we do offer full proofing on all our images, but LOL….20% happier????

Check back soon for E Session (That is Engagement Sessions folks!) Images.  ‘Til then enjoy the fabulous weather we are having!  School holidays couldn’t be better and I’m loving hanging with my four kiddos!

Today I sit here feeling like i just wasted my day….my last day before the school hols begin.  Yep, I love having my kiddos around and doing things with them, just hanging out…and sleeping in! but I miss my day’s of silence.  Usually when I’m proofing i like to hammer out some tunes from David Cook (did you know his first album BEFORE Idol, went to No. 1 and then Amazon and Itunes removed it?????  I managed to grab it before that, since we loved David right from the get-go…so I’ll sit here hammering out Mr Cook, or Leona Lewis (who really should be called Leona Lungs!) ….and if I’m needing to think about something intensely or create….David Archuleta makes a comeback; as does Marty Casey and Mig.  

But today, I sit here in silence, contemplating the fact that whilst I’ve caught up on emails, done mail and packages for the States and Australia, organised wedding technical gear, and three loads of washing…..I still feel like I didn’t achieve anything on this my last day “off” for two weeks.  No radio, no jug boiling, just the sound of …………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

…and suddenly I’ve realised that that is doing something….it is hearing your soul breathe, resting in your self.  Renewing the batteries.

So in about an hour I should be like the energiser bunny…….or this guy!   (101 Photoshop Tips in 5 mins for those of you who love editing your photos!  WARNING: not appropriate for younger ears in some places, features mild bad language (mild by today’s standards I mean!).

I would post a pic…..but you know….today I’m doing nothing………………

Well okay…this made me laugh!  Have a great weekend~

I guess that says it all tonite….Family……I recently photographed a beautiful family, amazing couple, and she is an incredible artist who needed some “headshots” for her website (which is coming soon and I promise to post link here so you can all rush to buy her art; before she becomes one of those “BIG NAMES” that movie stars hang on their walls!) 

Their girls were fun, lively and ALIVE….the three perfect ingredients for great kids shots!  and how much am I loving our new Tilt Shift Lens???  A LOT!!!   Anyone that has worked with us knows that I personally have a penchant for old and unique cameras and lenses and love incorporating them into our images and style.  I love the unique look that add, their quirkiness, their imperfections.  

Since Clare is herself an artist, I wanted to incorporate more “arty” style images into their normal family portraiture…..and it was a great opportunity to have some fun! 

Family also is so complex, whether they be close or distant.  I love watching Brothers & Sisters (and did you see the wedding last night???  Finally Kitty and Robert tied the knot!)…..I love this Show because it is so honest about relationships within a family.  Every family is disfynctional to some degree.  Not in a bad way but in a way that makes them unique, different and evokes memories that no other family can have.  Families…. they have their own Essence, their own sense of Being.  Hope you can hear what I’m saying!   I guess that is why I laugh at the sibling fights on Brothers & Sisters, the love, the tantrums, the support, the ugliness…it is a tidier version of what my own family was.  Growing up with six brothers and a sister, I remember our home always being slightly chaotic and FULL of people.  Friends, Partners, Cousins……always full of extras.   

Tonite I sit here and remember what it was to grow up in the midst of all that chaos and then to spend time with my Grandmother……Peaceful; the ticking of the Grandfather clock that she would let us wind with her “special” key (I still love clocks because of this!), the glass ball decorations that hung on the tree and each year she filled them with lollies for each of us grandkids (and yes I do have similar balls for my kids). The patchwork quilts she would make with her cupboards full of those hexagon patches!  I always loved climbing into bed in her quiet room, a room all to myself, and tucking down under that homemade quilt.  I loved her poetry but I hated that she made me read it “properly” and even do speech classes so I would pronounce things correctly.  But now I love her for it.   

I loved the sound of her typewriter clicking as she wrote her short stories and letters on Aerogrammes that she would post all around the world to places I could only dream of.  I hated that she was so stingy with her allowance of Raro, I hated that she would hit my knuckles with the bread knife if I didn’t sit up straight at the table.  I loved that she took us in when my mother died when I was 6,  I hated that she made us eat smoked fish pie each week, I loved that she baked on the same day she made that darn pie!  and if we held our noses and gulped that disgusting stuff down, we got a cookie which helped alleviate the ugly taste from our mouths.  I hated that she thought Brussel Sprouts were good for us….who the heck invents those lies????  

I loved the Ginger Beer she bottled and put under the kitchen sink to “cure”….I loved it more when the flagons would pop their corks during dinner and everyone would jump out of their skins as the sound like gunfire would make us all jump with fright and then kill ourselves with laughter as the cupboard filled with bubbling “Beer”.

I loved her fire in her lounge, I loved her Raggedy Anne books (and now have a collection on my own shelf).  I haven’t seen her for years because my own family has kept me busy.  And now I won’t see her again.

She had a stroke the other day……and we wait now for news in the next couple of days of her passing.

I love that she will see God, I pray that she will be told “Well Done”.  She is 95.

Though our Hearts be apart, my Memories are ever present. 

If I can have one thing to remember you by, let it not be one of your worldly possesions,

but let it be a poem from your hand and a photo of your face.  

(I hope you love this poem Grandmother, safe journey).

Recent Maternity to share, yes finally some images…thanks Tash for the fix!  …..and just some random thoughts.  I went to see Sex & the City….loved the show on TV, double loved the movie!  I especially loved the fashion, the shoes!!!….and the wedding dress shoot by Vogue!  That made me drool, made me want to rush out and buy a pink ladder and find a Bride who was up for anything!  I’m sure with the list of Brides that we have booked between now and 2010, that won’t be a problem! 

The thing that really touched me about the Movie, was their friendship.  All embracing, all enduring…and when Charlotte screamed “NO” at Big….I was thrown back in my seat!   Was that sweet Charlotte?  wow!  That is the power of friendship, the protectiveness of it.  It made me sad too, to think of Jackie who passed away a few years ago now (gosh has it really been that long?)….my best friend, my friend from High School….who was like a sister.  Watching the girls on screen made me realise again what we lose when we lose those friendships that we made when we were younger.  Some how friendships we make when we are older never seem to be quite the same as those one’s where we “grew up” together.

….and if all else fails to touch you, make you laugh, make you cry….the 80’s fashions and music will take some of you back…which is just plain scary!

and yet I’m having Blog hassles!  It is so annoying to not be able to post images without major major administration going on behind the scenes!  but my lovely friend Miss Tash is gonna fix it for me!  I usually use Windows Live Writer but since buying a new computer system with Windows Vista on it (DON’T EVER BUY VISTA if you can avoid it!!!) we have had nothing but trouble with it.  Photoshop runs slow, images won’t load to the internet, and we are now in the position of having to wipe everything off the computer (don’t worry we have everyone’s images on an external backup, as well as two other backups onsite and one in the States…so you are all in no danger of losing anything!)…..and restore the whole thing back to factory default, but then I think we will have Computer Guy reload Windows XP…since I have a Vengeful Vista side (only recently discovered of curse!)   *yep that should have been ‘course’ but when I misspelt it, I thought it made more sense on how I actually feel, and this is my blog, so I’ll misspell if I want!  LOL!!!

So tomorrow I will be back (Arnie voice there!) with images from some amazing fun sessions we have had lately, updates on where we are at with wedding books (09/2010 is filling fast so if you are wanting a wedding photography booking please contact us NOW~!), and some general life news ; which includes the story of our stupid cat and her dislike of the new cat door!   It didnt’ seem funny until I photographed it, then I realised it was hilarious!

Hugs and thanks for understanding!  …and yep I see those TAGS!  gonna get onto them too!

Sometimes we forget what life is really all about, and we measure ourselves by the standards of others; thank goodness, some people rise above that, and measure themselves against their OWN standards

When we look at a picture

A Moment of Magic occurs

It is as if someone had laid a sheet of translucent paper over our thought

and made a tracing of our memories

- Tom Bentkowski

Love that!  that is so so true…the image recalls our thoughts, feelings…how and who we were.  The power of photography.    Wonder what these guys will remember in 10, 20, 30 years time?

Laters~!

Gosh I have soooo much News! Seriously!  Firstly, the new BLOG!!! yipppeee, I LOVE IT and I love Kylie Clark for doing it, so super quick, so efficiently and thinking of all the things that I didnt’ have time for!  If you need a new blog or some design work done….you need to contact her! THANKS KYLIE! 

Secondly, we are going paperless! as many of you know, I’ve been “green” for a wee while now but it has still required some printing out….as of next week, we will be doing online booking forms that will be so so easy peasy, you just won’t believe it!  The ONLY bit of paper that clients will now sign is the Model Release (which I know can be signed with a digital signature in the States…but it is still a bit ifffy down under!).  Also all your information, clothing guide, gallery walls, Session Details will be in your own online booking area!  Everything you wanted to know about YOUR session….right there for you to check out and read at your leisure!  It goes up within 48 hours of you booking and we dont’ remove it until after your Gallery closes!  It will even help you to navigate our online Shopping Cart system….super super WOW!  Can you tell I’m excited? LOL

So last week was my birthday, and I got the most amazing lamp from Femme de Brocante here in Rangiora…if you are out this way the two shops I recommend you stop at are Wee Kiwi for any of your children’s requirements (they have a new FAB Owner! and check out my gallery wall while you are in there!)and Femme de, who have such beautiful fabrics!  Tell them both I sent you!

So I got a lamp, I got a wee spool family from Erica Daley (you are amazing woman! these are incredible in real life!)….and my husband painted and decorated my whole office/dining area.  I was so so impressed!  I absolutely adore it, it is clean and fresh and now I feel I can participate in Carrie’s POTM challenge!  Gonna get me a new area to put my hubby to work on for next month Miss Carrie! 

If you love beautiful things for your home, go check out Etsy.  I love Etsy and I love this Print, and John Clark’s work, and finally, if you want to give your children a gift of a lifetime, go follow along with Nic Howard’s All About Me Kids Album, she’s showing you how to do each page!  This is the kind of book every child will want to read each night!  (even when they are 13….and no my daughter doesnt’ admit to that!).

I’ll post some pics of the new office, lamp and my cute little spool family, tomorrow, but for now, something else is new too…….a new couple!  CONGRATS GUYS!!!  We had such a rocking time on the weekend, I’m loving all the engagement and wedding couples we are meeting; they are all just so darn cool!!!